High School Volleyball:Fourth Annual JV Volleyball Tournament Held at Cherry Hill East

Saturday, October 28, 2000

By John DaglianSJSports Special Correspondent

Cherry Hill East High School hosted their fourth annual Junior Varsity Volleyball tournament on Saturday October 28th. Eight schools featuring fifteen teams were represented at the event. As the girl's season concludes this week, this type of tournament gives the younger players a tremendous opportunity to gain valuable experience. The format divided the teams into three five team pools. Each team would play the other four teams in their pool twice. The teams with the best records in each pool would advance to the semi-finals. Additionally, the team with the best second place record would be given the final semi-final spot.

The first pool consisted of Cherry Hill East A, Sterling, West Windsor North B, West Windsor South and Washington Township B. The second pool was composed of Eastern A, Washington Township A, West Windsor North A, Williamstown B and Moorestown B. The last pool included Moorestown A, Williamstown A, Cherry Hill West, Eastern B and Cherry Hill East B. As you can see schools from all over the region participated in the tournament. West Windsor North is a brand new school this year and Williamstown is only in its second year of Volleyball.

During pool play each match consisted of two 11 point games with a 25 minute time limit. This is necessary to ensure the tournament runs smoothly and players aren't playing from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

The first pool to finish play saw Cherry Hill East A advance to the semi finals with a 6 - 2 mark in pool play. The winner of the second pool was not determined until the final match as Eastern A and West Windsor North B were both 6 - 0 entering the match. However, Eastern A prevailed to win the pool and enter the semi-finals undefeated at 8 - 0. The third pool's final match had a little more at stake. Cherry Hill East B faced Williamstown A to determine the pool winner. Both teams were 5 - 1 entering the match, however, a split would require a tiebreaker for both the pool winner and the wild card entrant. Cherry Hill East B took the first game 11 - 5, but Williamstown A came back to win the second game 11 - 3 and capture the third pool via point differential. Point differential was needed for the final semi-final spot. This went to West Windsor North A over Cherry Hill East B who both finished pool play at 6 - 2.

The semi-final match ups featured West Windsor North B vs. Cherry Hill East A and Eastern A vs. Williamstown A. These matches were set up as one 21 point game with a 25 minute time limit. Neither match would need the time limit as both Eastern A and West Windsor North B cruised to victories. This set up a rematch between the pool members.

Center court was set up in record time and the finals got under way around 2:30 PM. This would be a regular best of three match. In the first game, West Windsor jumped out to an early 4 - 1 lead, but Eastern stormed back to tie the game at 6. At that point Eastern seemed to take control scoring 9 of the next 11 points in a 15 - 8 win. The second game was probably the best game of the day as neither team could get more than a 2 point lead. The game lasted 25 minutes and ended 16 - 14 with West Windsor North forcing the deciding third game. In the third game, West Windsor again jumped out to a 5 - 1 lead early only to see Eastern storm back and take a 12 - 7 lead. Eastern then achieved match point at 14 - 8, but West Windsor was not ready to go home. They fought off 5 championship points and closed the lead to 14 - 13, before Eastern finally found the open court deep down the line for the game winner.

Congratulations to Eastern A for capturing the fourth annual Junior Varsity Tournament and also to West Windsor North for obtaining that school's first ever trophy.